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Mystics-Liberty Preview

Sep 10, 2015 - 9:04 PM The New York Liberty are enjoying the best regular season in franchise history.

That accomplishment might ring hollow if they come up short in the postseason again, however.

They look to continue building momentum for the playoffs Friday night as they host the Washington Mystics in a potential first round preview.

New York (23-9) won 74-64 Wednesday against Connecticut, surpassing the club's 22-12 mark from 2010 and clinching home-court advantage through the playoffs. The Liberty struggled to find traction earlier in the year, opening 4-4, and were without Epiphanny Prince for the first 10 games as she played for Russia in the EuroBasket tournament.

The team is 17-5 when Prince plays, though, and she recorded 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists against the Sun. She's shooting 57.1 percent over her last six games compared to 44.7 previously.

"We didn't start off great, we made a couple of changes as (coach Bill) Laimbeer tweaked the rotation a little bit," team president Isiah Thomas said. "We were strong enough that we could weather the storm in terms of finding the right way to play."

A league title has remained elusive for the Liberty, who lost trips to the WNBA Finals in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002. They've only reached the conference finals twice in the last 10 years.

Laimbeer has been to the top of the mountain, winning three titles with the then-Detroit Shock. He's also guided New York to continued improvement, going 11-23 in 2013 and 15-19 last year.

"It means if you win your home games you win the championship," Laimbeer said of clinching home court. "You still have to win them. We don't get bonuses or trophies for the regular-season best record. All it does is give us the opportunity to play at home in big games. Great, we like playing at home. If we win at home we're the champions."

The Mystics (17-15) are competing for the third spot in the Eastern Conference despite a late-season swoon. They won for just the second time in eight games Tuesday with a 76-72 overtime victory against third-place Indiana, which they trail by one game. They split the season series two games apiece, so the Fever currently hold the tiebreaker with an 11-9 conference record compared to Washington's 9-11 mark.

Ivory Latta scored a season-high 25 on Tuesday.

These clubs haven't met since New York's 79-76 overtime win in Washington on July 9 after the Mystics won the season's first two meetings. The Liberty are 12-4 at home while Washington is 6-10 on the road.